Dead as a Door...bell.

Happy happy Friday!  Happy Friday.  Fri-dayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.  

I have a quick update/tutorial/before and after to share today.  I recently replaced my doorbell.  And it was easy.  As in it took maybe five minutes.  

When I moved in, the doorbell looked like this:

It was broken and ugly.  It worked, but I repeat: it was broken and ugly.  I had never replaced a doorbell before, but figured two things: (1) it could not be that hard [it wasn't] and (2) the electricity running to the doorbell had to be a tiny amount so risk of shock must be low [correct].  I decided to risk it and try to replace it.  

I went to my local hardware store to find a replacement doorbell.  They had a bunch of kinds, including several glow in the dark buttons, but I did not like how fake the metal finish was.  I ended up with this standard white (of course I did).  It was $4.50.  

I took the old doorbell off and paid attention to how it worked.  So easy.  There are two metal ends and they simply hook around the two screws inside the doorbell.

Once I attached the metal ends to the screws, I just popped the doorbell back on the side of the house and ...

TA DA!  Done.  And it works!  Oh it looks so much better.  Let's do one more quick compare and contrast before we head out for the weekend.

Before

After

Yay.  Gotta love checking off a project that has long since bothered you, right?  Have a wonderful weekend!  Last one in February!  Who can believe that?

See you swoon,

Farewell Green Pleather Chair!

And hellllllllllllllloooooooo gorgeous!

This baby has come a long way from how it looked when I bought it for $15 on Craigslist!

This chair has been on my list of things to do pretty much since Day 1 in the new house.  I finally got to it, and I won't lie, it was hard and painful and tedious work!  I was definitely intimidated by the whole process, as everything I have read about stripping and reupholstering chairs seemed fraught with warnings about how un-fun of a project it is!  And I don't sew, so I was very nervous.  But I figured I should just jump in and if it was an utter disaster, I'd be out just $15.  

I certainly did not want to reinvent the wheel on this, so I read, printed, re-read and strictly followed the tutorial for reupholstering chairs on Little Green Notebook.  In particular, I followed steps one, two, and three of her five-step process (steps four and five were about sewing the cushion so I skipped that and made my own way with my seam tape).  If you're interested in redoing a chair, check out this tutorial.  I followed it to the letter.  Thank you Little Green Notebook!

The first thing I did was strip the chair of the green pleather (step one of the Little Green Notebook tutorial).  I used needle nosed pliers and all sizes of flat head screwdrivers.  My chair was upholstered with nailheads and tacks, so it wasn't too difficult to get them all out.  The key here is to go slowly and take pictures of everything, every angle as you go along (so you remember how to put it all back together when the time comes) and to save all the fabric pieces so you can cut the new fabric.  I also saved all the batting.

Step one is a very time-consuming process! It took me about two hours to do it.  Next, I cut my fabric to size.  I just put the green pleather on my new white cotton duck fabric and traced it like a pattern.  Since I cut the fabric, I could throw away the green pleather.

Next was Step Two - painting the frame.  I chose Dover White (again.surprise.always.) for the wood.  I followed the process I always follow when painting furniture: a coat of Zinsser oil-based primer and about three coats of Dover White by Sherwin Williams.  I use the Pro Classic paint, which is perfect for furniture (I have it in semi-gloss and high-gloss finishes ... I much prefer the semi-gloss, but I used high gloss for this one).  I did not go to the trouble of taking off the batting on the chair and just kind of painted around it.  Before I painted, I cut the caning out of the one side of the chair -- you can see above that only one side had the caning.  I much prefer the chair without it!

Next up was Step Three - stapling the fabric onto the frame.  This was the most nerve-wracking part of the process by a mile.  Before I stapled, I put all of the pieces together, just so I knew where everything went.  This helped a lot.  I just used my staple gun to put everything in place and followed the pictures that I had taken.   I also used nailhead trim that I purchased from Joann's.  A combination of staples and nailheads worked like a charm.  And here is the chair all put back together!

I had to cover the cushion with my cotton fabric, which was extra tricky because I used my no-sew seam tape and just ironed it on.  I pretty much just wrapped the cushion like a present and ironed the tape directly on the cushion.  And ... voila!

I am *so* glad this job is finished.  You may notice a coral pillow on the chair?  Stay tuned for my post later this week about what is going on! Someone else really likes the new chair too:

What about you? Have you ever taken a little journey to upholstery-land and lived to tell the tale? Please do share!  I'll admit it was not as bad as I thought, but I am happy to take a break from it for awhile :)

See you swoon,

DIY Chalkboard Menu - what's cookin?

Hi! It's Tuesday, which for me is the worst day of the week - next weekend is still far away and last weekend is way behind us.  I always do my best to muddle through to hump day.

Anyway, up today is a fun little project I recently tackled.  It's practical and cute and (for me) cost just $1.50!  A DIY menu board for my kitchen.  Here's the finished product right up front:

I absolutely needed this.  Because I work outside the home and because I am the one who picks up the kids from school and is in charge of our meals, I have to be organized with the meal planning in order to make healthy, homemade meals for my family.  This means a coordinated grocery store trip/meal plan for the week.  What I had been doing for years is to write out the menu for the week on a yellow post-it and put that on the fridge.  It always bugged me, but I never did anything about it.  Until now. 

Jamie recently posted about her Pottery Barn knock-off mail bin, which she removed from a larger organizational system that she grabbed at Home Goods.  As soon as I saw that big board with chalkboard, I knew I wanted it.  I asked if she had plans for it and she said nope - it was all mine. Yippie!  [We do this all.the.time ... like with my old mirror!  We give each other our cast-offs.  Fun!]  Here's the board before I got started:

The first thing I did was spray a fresh coat of chalkboard paint onto the chalkboard part.  The chalkboard that came on the board was really rough and I knew it was going to be an issue to write on.  I knew I was going to paint and prime over the frame so I didn't bother taping it off. Next, I puttied the holes where the mail bin used to be and sanded them nice and smooth.

When I sanded, I started to dig the distressed finish ... and for a few minutes I was considering just hanging a very distressed, vintagey looking menu board on the wall.  Like this:

But I went back to my beloved white paint and decided to stay the course.  It was time to prime.  I used my favorite Zinsser primer and then did 2 coats of Dover White (who's surprised?).  Looking good!

There was a pretty big space under the chalkboard.  I decided to put it to work. First, I added a cup pull that I had in my stash and turned it upside-down to act as a chalk holder.  Cute!

Then, I picked up some mini clothespins at Wal-Mart (8 for $1.50 or something) and glued them on the board with the glue gun.  I figure these can hold recipes or clippings or even coupons.  I painted them one of the grey paint samples from the den/kitchen - I think March Wind (Sherwin Williams).

Finally, I decided to write "menu" on the board, which I think is kind of fun.  I used black paint I had on hand and lightly brushed/dabbed the paint on for a more rustic and distressed look. I was inspired by this piece from Z.Gallerie ...

And here is mine:

I did a screen shot of the Z Gallerie chalkboard and enlarged it so that I could use the "menu du jour" as a template.  I free-handed it and took my time and it looks OK ... I wish it were a little more polished but maybe it's charming?   And here's the whole she-bang once again!

What do you think?  How do you keep tabs of what's cookin' each night?  I'll share my meal planning tips in a future post.  Now who's hungry? 

See you swoon,

DIY Tutorial: Make Your Own Rustic Chunky Frame Mirror!

And so it began.  My staircase was flat out BORING.  I was planning on creating a picture gallery up the stairs to fill in the blank walls but something just didn't feel right.  I love me a beautiful gallery wall and had one in my apartment but visually in my mind it felt too cluttered since this space is also part of the dining room. 

The new plan was to create a large mirror with an aged look for the bottom of the stairs and then just a few pictures and prints going up the stair wall to keep things simple. 

The mirror was completed and hung yesterday and I am head over heels for this baby.  Yes I could have gone out and bought a mirror, been done with it and had it hanging weeks ago but there is no way I would feel the amazing sense of pride I get right now looking at it knowing I created this with my own two hands. 

I scoured Craigslist looking for mirrored closet doors that I could take the frames off of and use just the mirror portion for this project, I got that idea from this inspiration picture:

Source: younghouselove.com via Shanna & Jamie on Pinterest

Anyway, finding closet doors was not happening so I turned to my trusty friend, Ikea.  This place never fails...except on a Saturday when everyone is off work and seems to take up residence there.  I found the Stave mirror for $49.99 and examined it to make sure I could get the frame off before purchasing.  All the glass was held in with was some glue/silicone and staples.  I snatched her up and headed home.  I admit, this part scared me because even though this mirror was incredibly inexpensive for its size, I did not want to break it while taking the frame off.

All I can say is to take your time.  I used a razor blade to cut around the back of the frame and separate the glue from the mirror and used a flat head screw driver to bend all the staples back. 

That worked to an extent but I had to get out the hammer.  Yes a hammer and glass to do not mesh well but that was my only solution.  I went very slow and tapped all around the frame and it came apart pretty quickly and much easier than I had anticipated.

After sweating and praying that this would all come out in one piece, this is what I had.  I used a bathroom rug to set it on so it would have a soft pad and so it wouldn't slip on the floor. 

I decided to go with pine boards and individually chose each board to make sure they were super knotty.  You will see how these knots look stained in a little while but let's really get into the steps of bringing this monster to life.

What you will need:

-Inside frame: four 1x6 eight ft. pine panel boards
-Outside frame: four 1x6 eight ft. boards
-12 L brackets
-Silicone
-Wipe on stain, color of choice
-Ikea Stave mirror
-Miter saw (make sure you have one that can cut all the way through the width of the wood

#1: Purchase four 8ft 1x6 pine paneling boards.  They have this groove in them that I figured would be perfect to slide my mirror into.  I liked this idea much better than trying to glue the mirror to the wood and hoping it doesn't fall off.  This groove would make sure the mirror stayed secure for all of eternity (sorry I know this is slightly blurry, the next picture should help give you an idea of what it looks like).

#2: Break out your amazingly stunning chop saw.  Finally I get to put her into action!  Thank you Uncle John for giving this to me, I will take very good care of it and cut everything in sight!

#3: 45 degree angles galore.  That is all the cutting for this project consisted of, I was happy with the ease of measuring for my first woodworking project.

If you don't have a saw yet, let me recommend one with a laser, it helps out in so many ways.  You can be confident you are cutting exactly where you measured.

#4: Attach all corners with L brackets.  I did not use any glue on the actual wood.  The L brackets were strong enough to keep everything tight and secure.

#5: I connected three sides first and ended up testing the mirror quite a few times to make sure that everything lined up once the mirror was installed.  This is where I hit a little hang up.  Once I slid the mirror into place the top piece that looked perfect without the mirror now looked like this:

The issue?  The bottom piece that the mirror sat in was uneven.  A co-worker of mine recommended using my Dremmel sander to sand inside the groove, ummm genius!  Yes!!  So I did exactly that and the mirror fit like a glove.  Thank god because if I have to buy another piece of wood and start over you may have been seeing this Swoon girl on the news..... and not for anything good.

#6:  Once all three sides are connected and the mirror fits you can start working on the outside frame.  I used regular 1x6 pine boards.  I went through the same steps of cutting all three on 45 degree angles and attaching them to the inside frame.  I just laid the outside frame on top of the pine panels and used finishing nails to secure them together (you don't even see them after staining and if you do it just adds to the rustic feel).  Once you have the top and bottom frame nailed together I just used L brackets on the outside frame as well:

Here is a shot from the front of the frame:

#7: All I did here was make sure the fourth side that was not secured yet (remember, you still have to slide the mirror in) still matched up with the two shorter sides.  Good to go!

#8: Carefully, ever so carefully slide the mirror into the frame, you need two people.  Thank you husband for coming down to the basement every time I needed to check and double check what I was doing.

#9: You are in the home stretch!  I used silicon for the back of the mirror to make sure that it didn't wobble inside the frame.  I didn't want to hear it shake every time someone shut the front door or just walked by.  This was super easy, just load into your caulk gun and fire away.  It doesn't have to be super neat because no one will ever see this side.

#10: Get staining!  Thank you all for your advice last week, I took it!  The walnut stain was perfect and looks gorgeous against my rice grain wall.

The rag must have been happy with it too because this is what I saw after I opened it up!  Exactly how I felt too friend :)

Staining complete!

#11: Last step is to hang the mirror.  I used this hanging system to make sure the mirror would be secure to the wall.  It ends up being pretty heavy and this hook will hold up to 200 lbs.  A little excessive I know but I would rather go overboard than come home to a broken mirror.

Are you ready for this?  Now you can step back and admire.  This is all I have done since it went up yesterday.  It adds so much to this room and cost just about $100!

What do you think?  If I left anything out that you have questions about let me know!  Shanna and I are going to do a repeat of this project very soon for her bedroom :) 

See you swoon,